In May I’ll be taking part in a very special group show at Parndon Mill Gallery.

Special because it’s with 5 artists that I met whilst a Fellow at Digswell Arts in Hertfordshire . Titled, Time Traces and Transformation, we will have our work on show in this beautiful gallery alongside our Sketchbooks.

“ I had a flashback of something that never existed” Louise Bourgeois

Working primarily with analogue photography, mixed media and printmaking the explorations i’ve been undertaking for this project have been inspired by ways to map the tensions between materiality and immateriality.

At the start of the project I did quite a bit of reading and went to some shows that I thought might help my ideas. My early sketchbook investigation shows a rather non linear and conflicting search for ways to develop imagery and ideas that responded meaningfully to this project. However, on reading and re- discovering the work of FD Cartier I had a kind of light bulb moment that kick started and led to current investigations.

“Through the Art (of FD Cartier) we rediscover the temporal multi-layeredness of the photographic image (and the) magical effect of natural light interacting with light sensitive materials”
David Drake, writing about FD Cartier

In researching and exploring ideas for this project it felt important to me to begin with objects. I had thought that i would continue with landscape themes but I was also keen to do something a bit different here - To use this project as an opportunity to work in a different way and to go back to more analogue photo methods. By exploiting light and shadow and using objects in my studio I created a group of tiny Lumen prints.

“The only thing we can grab hold of with any surety is the nature of impermanence”
Antonia Shaw writing on Cornelia Parker in Silver and Glass

Objects used for these prints represent random fragments collected on walks, things given, and even small slices of imagery that sit around my studio walls. Once I had fixed them I examined the imagery on the computer screen and played around with alternate versions. I noticed (and was drawn to) the more ethereal versions of these edited, inverted and layered interpretations. Some looked more enigmatic and uncanny. Dissolving forms that are held and suspended.

“.. and all these notes and stones and so on are precious vestiges of something that took place and played out” Claire Louise Bennett, POND .

The studio exploration has currently moved to the print room and although its early days i’ve been very happy with the results. I have been enjoying working from a plate that I created using some of the (Lumen print ) imagery that I was more drawn to. This first involved making quite a few photo collages to try out some compositions and proportions.

Collage and sketchbook exploration, studio Feb 2023

“The artists concern is not to render an exact physical likeness of things but to make visible what lies beyond what we immediately see. the hidden meanings which underline the gulf between reality and appearance” David Drake writing about FD Cartier.

Photopolymer etching on Somerset Satin. In the Portsmouth Printmakers Studio, Omega Centre. Feb 2023.

The next stage of this work is a case of getting to know my plate. I always say to my students that once you’ve created your plate then begins a kind of relationship with it - a journey where you need to discover ways to get the most from the plate. No plate is the same as another even if you’ve used the same processes.

More about the Exhibition;

Dates - 18th May - 25th June 2023

Location - Parndon Mill Gallery, Harlow, Essex.

Other Artists participating- Caryl Beach, Mary Down, Jonathan Emmerson, Marian Hall, Declan Hoare,

Reading list referenced,

Silver and Glass - Cornelia Parker and Photography

Wait and see, F and D Cartier

Pond, Claire Louise Bennett.